Skyberries and Voidmelons or Voidberries and Skymelons

I had a half day of annual leave to use up, so decided to go mudlarking, see some art, and go to a cafe. As low tide was at 9:15, I got up at 6 to make sure I'd have an hour beforehand. I got to Blackfriars and then queued for coffee and drank it on my way to the foreshore.

BBC had reported 0.00 for low tide, PLA had said 0.2. PLA then reported the actual tide as 0.4, but this time I managed to just about sneak around behind the leg of Waterloo Bridge, for the first time since the really low tide last year. I found a salt shaker! I wanted to look longer but was scared due to firstly the boats causing waves and secondly as the tide had turned. But, two other mudlarks appeared after low tide and they both went there, less hesitant than I.

The first mudlark said there wasn’t so much to find these days, but it doesn’t stop them looking, and the second showed me a nice bottle they’d found.

It was another day when lots of bottles were about, but I tried to be more restrained and only picked up 2 R White's and two little bottles. Plus a broken R White’s, as it seemed like the Thames was attempting to make art as a golf ball had become wedged in the bottle.

I dug a jam jar out of the mud, thinking it was something more exciting, but then put it back.

Finds included:



A necklace made of shells, which I left on the foreshore.



Two buttons and a bead

A Branch GPO sherd. I am not sure which office this is referring to, having previously found GPO West.

A Mecca sherd. I am not sure what Mecca cafe this is from.

Aerated Bread Company sherds

Express Dairies sherds

A different style piece of glass of an R White’s



A London Underground shot glass.

A salt shaker, with lid that says Cerebos salt on it. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Cerebos

A pink handcuff

A ceramic pot that says No 1 on the bottom

An interesting piece of pipe (sadly the other side is damaged) - possibly Masonic?

A piece of a small bottle - on the bottom it looks kind of like it could say “lner” but it might say something else.



A piece of a large bottle that says “ard”.

A piece of a torpedo bottle

A golfball stuck in a broken R Whites bottle.

A metal bowl that looks like one you can get from B&Q. https://www.diy.com/departments/urbnliving-4-stainless-steel-ice-cream-cups-170ml-dessert-bowls-sundae-dishes-pudding/5063536181075_BQ.prd



Two R White’s bottles



Two large bits of a plate that were near each other. I did try looking for the rest, but didn’t see it. I only really picked these up as I could see a tiny bit of a logo and was hoping to find the rest of it.

Plate with Leipsic pattern on by Joseph Clementson. (The back has this stamped on it.) This pattern was exhibited at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.

Then after that I went to the Hayward Gallery and then to Nagare.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Sunday 22nd February was a day of bottles! I picked up far too many as they just kept washing in.



Clear bottles:

Coca-cola bottle.

R White's - two different styles of R White’s bottles. One of them has a broken neck.

Presta bottle. Presta was made by Apollinaris and they made squashes and other drinks.

Presta advert:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/1qqg13o/ad_poster_for_presta_sparkling_orange_and/#lightbox

Apollinaris company: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp122659/the-apollinaris-company-limited



Brown bottles:

These three I am unsure of. Two of them could be modern beer bottles.

One says H4 CTC on the bottom. The other says R 10. The one with a label mark is much lighter than the other one, so I guess the one without the label is older.

The third makes me think of a cough mixture bottle and has B4 200 on it. When I hold the bottle up to the light I can see rainbow colours.

I might just recycle these ones.



A good chunk of a green torpedo/hamilton bottle, designed to be kept on its side. On the side I can read words that probably spelt:
Lemonade
le soda
Mineral waters
Wales

I can’t quite make out:
orth
le soda (table soda?)
R. H.
T’s

There’s also a glow stick and a bit of something that possibly said London Bridge.

Also, a pretty sparkly button!



I also found a glass jar. On the bottom it has an R in a circle and a 9. Perhaps it once contained jam. I’m thinking I might keep some pieces of colourful glass in it.



There was also a mysterious rusty thing. Google Lens said it was a grenade, which it definitely is not, but it could have been an oil lamp? It has a handle on the bottom.



And then there were a few other items:
A Libbey Duratuff glass, probably modern, as it’s quite jagged.

Part of a Thomas Keating bottle. The bottle would have read “Thomas Keating, Chemist, St Paul’s Churchyard”.

Thomas Keating was apparently based at 79 St. Paul’s Churchyard from around the 1780s, although records show this from around 1815.

Thomas Keating was a chemist and was known for their cough lozenges. One article I found said they sold cough lozenges in the winter and insecticides/flea powder in the summer!

The company later diversified and made scientific instruments, and components used in telephone exchanges and satellites! They still exist as TK Instruments: https://www.terahertz.co.uk/tk-instruments/history

A bit of glass I picked up as it said “ass” on it.

A sherd that says “Wells, 63 Wood Street, London” on it. It was made by Wells and Son, and could have been the base of a hat/wig shop display stand, like this one: https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/d11b0ba1e5d511d3ce164df1a086c0f4/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/antique-and-good-quality-modern-and-collectables/

It’s likely to be from the late 1800s.

They also made stands for mannequins and blanket racks.

A few pieces of Express Dairies Aster pattern.

A pink plastic heart bead.

A piece of a James Keiller marmalade jar. Keiller’s marmalade dates back to 1797, when Janet Keiller made some marmalade and then opened a factory in Dundee with her son, James Keiller, to produce it.

The green and white pattern is the Adams pattern by Collingwood, who were in operation from 1887 - 1948 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, It may have looked like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/376753433746 I have seen this pattern before, but hadn’t managed to identify it previously.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

After work, I headed down to Gabriel’s Wharf, and walked down onto the foreshore, but even at low tide, it was too high to walk along to the bit of foreshore outside the National Theatre. That day the low tide was apparently 2.15.

I found a few bits of Staffordshire style slipware and a piece with a few letters, and some leafy pieces, and a round yellow thing. But mostly I was just annoyed I couldn’t walk further along.



(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

I decided to try somewhere new again! Trinity Wharf Stairs outside Surrey Docks Farm.

When I reached the foreshore, there was someone digging to the right of the stairs. I walked that way a little bit and then decided to walk to the left. It was pebbly on the upper bit of the foreshore but lower down, there was a lot of mud. I took tentative steps and felt myself sinking in it so tried to be careful. Another mudlark appeared and was a lot more confident than me at walking over the mud nimbly!

This seemed much more like the kind of place I see the famous mudlarks finding things, prying items out of the mud. A lot of the foreshore I walk on isn't muddy at all, it's just pebbles.

I walked up to where there was a sign saying "Engineers Mills". The full sign apparently said:
Engineers
Mills & Knight
Nelson Dry Dock
Ship repairs



I found a pint glass with a handle, buried in the mud, and was glad I had my trowel, so I could dig it out. It has a pint symbol on it and looks like it says 1370 on it, which means it's from Chesterfield and was made between 1971 and 2006, so quite recent really. It has survived at least 20 years in the mud though! It's quite heavy.

I found a bottle, and it's still full of mud, and I'm trying to get the mud out of it. It's a UGB (United Glass Bottle Manufacturers) bottle, but on the side it says LWD - London Wholesale Dairies. Here's a photo of their building in Vauxhall in 1927: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/BL29277/001 They were the wholesale arm of United Dairies.

I found an Amazon Basics plate, which I left on the foreshore.

I found a small cowrie shell with holes in it. I also found a bit of coral, which may have been used on a ship as ballast. There's also a stone that looks like it has tiny bits of fossils in it.

I found a piece of glass that was probably once a Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society milk bottle. Written on it is "Royal Arsenal" and "RACS". RACS were in operation from 1872 to 1987 when they merged with the Co-Op. Their headquarters were in Woolwich. As well as shops selling food, they ran everything from hairdressers to bookshops to undertakers to hotels, and also built houses. Their motto was "Each for all and all for each". I also found a second piece of glass.

I found a piece of glass from a Walker’s Kilmarnock whiskey bottle. They later became Johnnie Walker, in 1909.

I found a red and white sherd, that might be from Hilti.

I found a piece of green glass from an R White's bottle that said "Camberwell" on it.

I found a bit of a pipe with the initials I I on it.

I have yet to figure out the piece of glass with "KS" written on it.

Surrey Docks Farm had signs around that explained the history of the area, of how the area was used for shipbuilding and how there was a smallpox receiving station there. There was also a mudlarked finds box but unfortunately there was a lot of condensation on it, so it was difficult to see. They had pottery from the smallpox receiving station and from London County Council (LCC). They also had a mosaic made from clay pipes and bits of pottery.

I had a quick look around the farm after mudlarking and they had a few more signs about the history, as well as pigs, goats, cows, sheep, and other animals.

After that, I walked past some more steps that were a bit green, but the gate was open, near the Ship & the Whale and wondered if the glass had come from that pub.

I then saw people running to get on a boat at Greenland Pier, so I decided to do the same, not knowing where the boat was going. I ended up getting off the boat in Woolwich.











(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

I had been tempted to book the morning off work when I noticed a very low tide, but was only properly swayed when a fellow mudlark asked if I was going to the foreshore.

BBC predicted the tide as 0.00, so we were keen to visit the bottle graveyard. PLA’s prediction was 0.22, but in the end it was actually observed as 0.36, so we were not able to get there, but we did find some interesting items anyway.



In the first picture:

A finger! Don’t worry, it’s a plastic one. Possibly a witch’s finger.

A Codd bottle marble

A button

A pink bead and a blue bead

A brown piece of glass that says 6oz on it. Possibly from a large Bovril jar that was 16oz. It’s a different shade of brown to the other Bovril jar I found though.

A piece of uranium glass that glows brightly under UV.

A Minton sherd with a globe mark. Possibly 1863 - 1872.
https://www.thepotteries.org/potters/minton.htm

A JC Oriental sherd. Joseph Clementson, circa 1850s. It would have originally looked like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186907264126

A tiny opalite

Part of a pork pie inkwell.




And in the second picture:

Another piece of an old Fanta bottle

A Bailey and co sherd:

The Fulham Pottery dates back to around 1672, when it was founded by John Dwight.

Bailey and Co were in operation there from about 1864 - 1889, run by Charles Bailey.

In 1889, they were fined for emitting smoke.

Today, you can still see the bottle kiln from the Fulham Pottery on the site and it is a Grade II listed building.

--

A rather rusted blue Mickey Mouse purse. Similar style one here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/389226667721

An SW Dean sherd. They were in operation in Burslem from 1904 - 1910.

A pink bicycle bell.



And in the third picture:

A pair of sunglasses

A green bottle

An R Whites bottle, found by a fellow mudlark.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

I can't believe I've been mudlarking on 87 days!

It was lunchtime and I arrived at the foreshore just before low tide. There were a group of people who walked up and underneath the wharf. I weren't sure if they were mudlarks, although at least one person was wearing gloves. The easiest way to spot other mudlarks is wellies.

Then after that there were a few tourists about. Much easier to spot, no wellies, no gloves, picking things up with their bare hands.

I stumbled across a very large but sadly no longer living crab.

Finds included a stripey stone, a piece of Metropolitan Slipware and a piece of a Bartmann jug.

Low tide was early that Sunday, but a little later in Chelsea, so I headed there on the first train out.

I reached the foreshore around sunrise, but the skies were grey and cloudy. Just past Battersea Bridge, on the foreshore, you can see the remains of trees that once grew there, a forest that is now submerged.

I found:

The largest intact bottle I’ve found so far! It’s about 18cm tall.

United Glass Bottle Manufacturers) apparently used the UGB mark from 1913-1968.
The marks on the bottom look like they say:
H781
UGB
S 28

It possibly contained disinfectant.



Another rounded bottom bottle, perhaps from the 1880s?

A piece of glass that says “W & M”

A piece of glass that looks like it says “edon” but I am not sure of the letters before that.



A mysterious white cube object with patterns that has broken off something. Possibly a spaceship.

A handle from something (possibly bone)

A piece of glass from United Dairies.

A marble

Two and a half buttons.

Part of a ginger beer bottle by W&W. Western and Wolland (W&W) were in business in Bermondsey from about 1865 to 1896, making ginger beer and lemonade. As this bottle is stoneware as opposed to glass, it’s likely to be from the earlier period.

I likely walked past the premises where this was made on the day I found this sherd but didn’t realise at the time.

Part of a bottle that says London on it.

The base of a bottle that says:
London the property of Id (letters cut off)
Not to be refilled
Regd no
853390
B&Co

B&Co could be Bagley & Co.

A green bit of a Batey bottle.

Part of a torpedo (hamilton) bottle. It says on it “E&C” and possibly “waters” and “street”. It also says “rior” - Prior? It is dark green and quite thick glass. Thicker than the other bits of torpedo bottle I’ve found.

A Van Den Bergh & Co gin bottle fragment. This would have been from a Dutch gin bottle from around the 1870s.



(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

It was dark and raining and low tide had already passed. I crossed Blackfriars bridge and hesitated about going down to the foreshore. I found just a piece of Staffordshire style combed Slipware before giving up.



(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

I miscalculated and only gave myself just over an hour on the foreshore before I had to be elsewhere but perhaps that was just as well as it was cold.

This time I wore gloves underneath my plastic gloves and thicker socks under my wellies and that helped me to keep warmer.

There were plenty of tourists, both on the foreshore and staring down at me, which is why I prefer to avoid this bit at weekends, unless it's early.

I found my second glowstick, and also some sherds including:

Four pieces of Express Dairies Aster pattern
Brown piece of Dudson
Some delicious strawberries
Dunn Bennett & co
J & G Meakin

A mysterious piece that says “Drew” and “Circus”. Wondering if it could be from St Andrew St, Holborn Circus, but difficult to tell.

Also, what I think is a bobbin, possibly bone and possibly for lace.





(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Unexpectedly, I was let out of work early on New Year's Eve so rushed to the foreshore. My trains had engineering work so I had to go a different route but then got on the wrong train from London Bridge and ended up in Norwood Junction, far from the river.

I did eventually make it to the South Bank though. Security were making people detour around the back of Gabriel’s Wharf so wouldn't let me get down the steps to the foreshore there, so I walked back towards Blackfriars and finally made it down.

It was the last day of the year and as the sun set, I was on the foreshore, staring at the Thames.

I found a cowrie shell, which would have been used for trade, as they're not native to the Thames. This is the third one I've found.

I found a piece of Meakin Sol Ware with a sun logo, probably from around 1918 - 1963.

I found another piece of Express Dairies aster design.

I found a piece of Lovatt & Lovatt, Langley Mill, Notts, which would have been from between 1895 and 1930. I mostly find things from London or the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent, not so much other places.

I found a piece of a Bovril jar! My second Bovril jar, but sadly this one was not in one piece.

I found a sherd that said "ich" on it. I assumed this must be German, but the Prince of Wales’ motto is "Ich dien" (meaning "I serve"), so it’s likely to be from that, maybe a commemorative plate.



(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)